Posted by on September 9, 2010 – 11:14 am
Looks like our pals at Research In Motion are taking the company name literally this week — they’ve got a pair of patent applications target ads to automobiles and pedestrians on the street by dynamically changing their information density. By taking a page out of Google’s book and measuring the relative position of GPS-equipped phones (or using traditional sensors should that fail), RIM wants to create digital billboards that automatically add details the slower traffic gets. In one example, a “Road House Restaurant” could display only the name and exit number of the joint in giant letters when traffic moves quickly, but pitch that delectable pecan pie more thoroughly when it’s stop and go — but RIM’s thinking a bit further than that, suggesting that when vehicles are particularly slow, you could pull out your phone and get a coupon by photographing a projected QR code. The future, ladies and gentlemen.
RIM tries to patent billboards that adjust to roadside traffic originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 9, 2010 – 10:48 am
So let’s see, how long has iOS 4.1 been out in the open for public consumption? We make it less than 24 hours, yet already some earnest jail busters have managed to liberate it from Apple’s control freak clutches. It’s still a fair distance away from an easily executable jailbreak, but it’s looking like it’ll work on iPhone 4, the latest-gen iPod touch, and the iPad, covering all the freshest bases of Apple hardware. Now it’s just a matter of waiting it out.
iOS 4.1 jailbreak on the way after bootrom exploit discovery originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 9, 2010 – 10:19 am
LaCie’s bringing its monkey out to play again today, announcing a USB 3.0 version of the Rikiki and a new Minimus portable hard drive. Both come in slick aluminum enclosures, with the Rikiki looking unchanged from its predecessor, but of course inside they pack the extra vroom vroom of the latest USB spec. Unlike Iomega, LaCie isn’t shy about price premiums here, as the Rikiki USB 3.0 model costs $100 for 500GB (versus $85 for the 2.0 SKU) and the Minimus offers a terabyte in exchange for $130. Both will have larger options as well, a 1TB Rikiki and a 2TB Minimus — with correspondingly elevated levies, we’re sure.
Continue reading LaCie embraces USB 3.0 with world’s smallest hug, ‘world’s smallest’ HDDs
LaCie embraces USB 3.0 with world’s smallest hug, ‘world’s smallest’ HDDs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 9, 2010 – 9:48 am
If you were into last week’s announcements from Apple and Roku but still thought separating from even one Benjamin for a media streamer was just too much to ask, we have a solution that may work. The One Day, One Deal people at Woot.com have picked the Netflix, Amazon VOD and UFC-streaming Roku HD-XR with WiFi N (and a 1080p upgrade practically around the corner) for today’s offering, currently standing at $69.99 + $5 shipping for a refurbished unit with a 90 day warranty, which is the best deal we’ve seen since it launched. Sure, you can sit around and keep thinking over the comparisons, or you can just click the buy button now before they run out of stock, which could happen at any moment. Like now. Or now. Or…you get the point.
[Thanks, Isaac]
Woot offers up refurbed Roku HD-XRs for $75 shipped originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 9, 2010 – 9:17 am
Browser betas, like puberty, can be a confusing time. Sure, we’re eager to be getting new functionality, but all the crashes and compatibility breaks and unrequited crushes can be a bit tough to handle. Now Mozilla is giving us something big for all our blood, sweat and acne: Firefox 4 Beta 5 has Direct2D hardware acceleration on by default. We tested it out real quick, and it seemed to speed up most HTML5 tasks considerably while inexplicably slowing a couple down, but we’re sure all will be ironed out in time for the final version of Firefox 4 to go head to head with Microsoft’s own upcoming hardware accelerated contender, IE9. Unfortunately, the speedups only apply to Windows for now, Mac and Linux are being left out in the GPU-less cold, but we suppose they should be used to that by now. Other perks in the update include HSTS, a successor to HTTPS in secure surfing, and HTML5 Audio, which allows for all sorts of audio processing and analysis at the browser level. You can check out a quick demo of hardware acceleration after the break.
Continue reading Firefox 4 Beta 5 brings GPU acceleration for Windows
Firefox 4 Beta 5 brings GPU acceleration for Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 9, 2010 – 8:50 am
Okay, so Symbian^3 is still just a glint in our eyes, but that launch date is fast approaching and here’s a neat little accessory to keep up excitement for the platform: the Mobile TV Headset. You know how most phones use the cord of your earphones as an FM aerial? Well, this thing does the same, only with DVB-H teevee signals, piping them straight through into your USB-on-the-go-equipped Nokia handset. It comes with channel-changing, call-receiving, and volume controls, and will set you back €40 ($51) before taxes in Q4 of this year.
[Thanks, Maximus]
Nokia Mobile TV Headset acts as a TV antenna for your unreleased Symbian^3 device originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 9, 2010 – 8:20 am
Galaxy Tab? Who needs that overpriced prima donna? Here’s the tablet the economical among us have been waiting for. Alright, so the Elocity A7 didn’t elicit the highest of praise when it made its cameo on The Engadget Show, but let’s congratulate its makers on achieving a pair of feats. Firstly, StreamTV has managed to get its Froyo tablet listed for pre-order on Amazon — which is no mean feat in itself, just ask Notion Ink — and secondly, it’s done so at an even lower price point than promised, with an encouraging $370 tag. Even if you’re like us and not entirely blown away by its performance, you’ve got root for this little slate to complete the narrative and start selling — if for no other reason than that it might incite others to stoop to the same price point.
Elocity A7 goes up for pre-order on Amazon with Android 2.2, Tegra 2, and a $370 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 8, 2010 – 10:34 pm
No, we’re not talking about robotic
charging stations that roam the highways and recharge your car without even stopping (sadly), but a new system proposed Zafer Sahinoglu and his colleagues at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts may just help to fill in some of the gaps on the road. While exact specifics are a bit light, the basic idea is to have a series of “roaming” chargers that would be charged up at night and moved around based on demand — demand that would be determined by sensors in electric vehicles, which would report their findings back to a central operations center. According to Sahinoglu, you’d only need five charging stations to cover 100 electric cars on a 100-kilometer stretch of highway, so it would seemingly be a quick and relatively inexpensive way to cover a large area — assuming you can find an efficient way to actually move the chargers around. Look for more details to be announced at the Vehicular Technology Conference in Ottawa next week.
Researchers propose ‘roaming’ charging stations to keep electric cars powered originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 8, 2010 – 10:06 pm
We still maintain that you’ve got better options than TomTom when it comes to iPhone GPS software, but if you pulled the trigger before giving yourself a moment to consider what you were actually doing, this here news may just interest you. In an effort to maintain compatibility with Apple’s latest and greatest iPhone, TomTom is now including a simple adapter for all Car Kit orders going out on September 1st or later. If you ordered one prior to that, you can apply down in the source link for a freebie to be sent your way. Or just hack something up in the garage that looks like the insert above. Your call, vaquero.
[Thanks, Dan]
Continue reading TomTom offers free iPhone 4 adapter for Car Kit
TomTom offers free iPhone 4 adapter for Car Kit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by on September 8, 2010 – 9:40 pm
Oh, Ben — how far you’ve come. But now that you’re about to star in your very own web show, don’t ever forget that we had you first. Pleasantries aside, we couldn’t be more thrilled to hear that the man responsible for pushing the art of modding into the mainstream is set to host a bi-weekly web TV show on the subject. The Ben Heck Show will see its first episode published on September 13th, where Ben showcases a mod of a controller for an avid gamer with a serious disability. Future episodes will highlight “projects inspired by the modder community, ranging from mods for a particular need to gadgets that help electronic enthusiasts work and play faster,” which means that you and yours can send in ideas that may end up on the show. Head on past the break for a trailer, and be sure to pencil this one in right beside our own Engadget Show when it comes time for viewing pleasure.
P.S. – Congrats, Ben!
Continue reading The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation
The Ben Heck Show launching next week, right into your regular viewing rotation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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